Cloudy Walk

The weather forecast wasn't great for this morning walk and apart from the odd ray of sunshine it was very cloudy most of the time. There was also the occasional spot of rain in the strong wind.

Finding butterflies was a little taxing as they shelter from the wind and only venture in the open in sheltered sunny spots as they occur.

These next four shots are for David at 

http://grosmontine.blogspot.co.uk/

Green Burdock

The Greylag are gathering.

I found this female Gatekeeper in a sheltered sunny spot.

Here she is neatly joined by a female Small Skipper for scale.

Just to accentuate the dull cloudy conditions I thought I would throw in a few monochrome shots.

White Campion

Female Meadow Brown.

Meadow Crane's-bill.

Song Thrush

Chalkhill

The Chalkhill Blue Butterfly (Polyommatus (Lysandra) coridon)

Checking out the location this week where I normally see this species, I found three male specimens. This is two more than I found throughout the whole of last year. One of these was already looking a little worse for wear. This is the start of flight time for this species so hopefully I will find a few more.

Two Dragons

Emperor Dragonfly (Anax imperator)♂

The largest species of Dragonfly in UK.

Common in Southern and Central England.

Very territorial.

This male is my first sighting of this species.

Southern Hawker Dragonfly (Aeshna cyanea) ♀

Another large species and very common in Southern and central England.

It hunts away form water along woodland rides which is where I photographed this female.

Scenes from a Parkland Walk

Some scenes and images from my recent Parkland walk which extended along the main river and some open farmland.

A female Large White Butterfly 

Corncockle Flower

Green Elderberries

Male Black-tailed Skimmer basking in the sun on a rock beside the river.

Crop irrigation with the water being pumped from the river.

Barley turning golden in the sun.

Along the river bank. A good spot here for butterflies that favour open grassland.

Comma Butterfly

Mute Swans getting angry with other Mute Swans.

Field Scabious

I am not sure what these are. They could be crab apples, but are also shaped like a plum and soft.

Gatekeeper Butterfly

Male

Female

A very well worn Four-spotted Chaser Butterfly.

A golden field of Tuscany, well not quite and about 800 miles out.

This female Peacock Butterfly was hidden away in foliage trying to get as much sun as possible and I couldn't get a better angle to take the shot.